Week 5 NFL Injury Report: Steelers Running Backs Rashard Mendenhall And Mewelde Moore Banged Up

The major injury news coming off of a Week 4 loss to the Houston Texans revolved around leaders Ben Roethlisberger and James Harrison. It's already been reported that Harrison will miss four to six weeks with a broken orbital bone, suffered in a hit to the head by Duane Brown. Big Ben's case is a little murkier, with the quarterback nursing a foot sprain that he says he should be able to play through.

But while the Harrison and Ben injuries receive the headlines, the Steelers are dealing with a number of other injuries they must address heading into Week 5 against Tennessee. The most notable area of concern is at running back, where both Rashard Mendenhall and Mewelde Moore are banged up. Mendenhall left the game in Houston with a hamstring injury and Moore suffered an ankle sprain, rendering them questionable for the Titans game.

Mike Tomlin addressed the backfield today at his press conference.

"If Rashard's injury does prevent him from playing, obviously that will mean that Isaac Redman will be the feature runner. With both guys, at the very least they are nursing injuries at the early portion of the week, it is obvious that Redman is going to get the bulk of the action and we expect Jonathan Dwyer to ready himself to contribute as well, if the opportunity presents itself."

In addition to Redman and Dwyer, Tomlin intimated that the Steelers may add another running back this week (possibly Tristan Davis, who took a physical for the Steelers this week), to simulate Titans running back Chris Johnson in practice.

"For practice purposes we are going to look to at least bring in someone who is capable of being Chris Johnson-like in preparation this week. There are two elements when you prepare for a football game, not only in terms of what we are doing with our running backs, obviously with the injuries we have to be thoughtful with how we prepare our guys and get these guys ready to play, but also to get ready to defend the run against a guy like Chris Johnson."

We will have more on the Steelers backfield depth chart as the week progresses towards Sunday's matchup with Tennessee.

For more on the Steelers, check out Behind The Steel Curtain.